“Ugh! Are we catching up at all?” exclaimed a rather exasperated CrashCarson. “We were the first on the road and we haven’t seen the Greasers or Jocks for miles!”
“By my calculations,” squib interjected, her nose buried in a map, pencil and calculator in hand, “and taking into consideration the rate of travel of the other cars, if we considerably increased our speed and took no bathroom or food breaks, we would reach our destination by… well, that can’t be right.”
“What can’t be right?” CrashCarson asked.
“I’ve calculated we’ll arrive four days after the first car does,” squib finished.
“Once again, we’ll be last,” CrashCarson said as he hung his head in the back seat.
Jandelee pushed her tortoiseshell glasses up her nose. “Slow and steady wins the race,” she said happily. “This little car has a lot of pep!”
“While that may be true, pep is not exactly what will win us this race. What we need is an ingenious plan,” squib said as Gigabyte the cat sauntered across the front seat and settled in her lap.
“What are we going to do?” CrashCarson asked, perking up.
“The same thing we do every night. Try to take over the… just kidding!” squib answered. “Well, just because we started traveling down Route 66, doesn’t mean we have to stay on Route 66,” she added with a little smile. “I’ve been studying the map and I’ve found an alternate route. Take a look.” Squib handed CrashCarson the map and his eyes opened wide.
“Oh, I like!” he said and laughed.
“After all, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line,” Squib said as she pet Gigabyte.
“Have you made sure there are plenty of rest stops and gas stations along this new route?” asked Jandelee. “I wouldn’t want to get stranded in the middle of nowhere and have to, you know, actually talk to people for help,” she added with a shuddered.
“You are far too terribly shy!” CrashCarson teased. “I still have to break you of that habit.”
“It’s not a habit, it’s a condition!” Jandelee said, a bit hurt.
“Don’t worry, Jany, we understand,” squib said warmly as she patted her on the shoulder. “Here let’s lighten the mood with some music! We’ll put in my favorite Devo tape!”
“Nooooo!” Jandelee and CrashCarson both shouted as they stopped squib from touching the radio.
“Please, anything but Devo!” CrashCarson pleaded.
“Fine!” squib said, “Then we can just play ‘License Plate Bingo’ as we drive along. First to get 20 out of 50 states wins!”
“Yay!” Jandelee and CrashCarson replied.
“Oh, that’s the exit for our shortcut!” squib said, pointing at an upcoming road sign.
Jandelee turned off Route 66 as the Geeks started down the road less traveled.
